Magical Thinking Won’t Stop Climate Change
World leaders have started to generate some real optimism with their efforts to address global climate change. What’s troubling, though, is how far we remain from getting carbon emissions under control — and how much wishful thinking is still required to believe we can do so. The Paris agreeme…
Conflict and the long-lasting impact on child health
Evidence shows that conflicts have a long-lasting negative impact on the health outcomes of a population. The ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen and other states today may have a long-lasting health impact on the lives of future generations there. The Demographic and Healt…
Growing anti-malaria drugs in tobacco plants
ONE of the most valuable weapons in the war on malaria is artemisinin, a drug derived from the leaves of sweet wormwood. Its discovery, inspired by wormwood’s use as a herbal remedy for the disease, brought Tu Youyou, the scientist responsible for making it, the first Nobel prize for medicine awarde…
West Africa Is Being Swallowed by the Sea
FUVEMEH, Ghana — The tide is just starting to come in when David Buabasah begins nervously checking the waters creeping up the coastline toward his partially destroyed home. As the high tide mounts the steep shore of this small Ghanaian fishing village perched on a shrinking peninsula between …
The Soviet InterNyet
On the morning of 1 October 1970, the computer scientist Viktor Glushkov walked into the Kremlin to meet with the Politburo. He was an alert man with piercing eyes rimmed in black glasses, with the kind of mind that, given one problem, would derive a method for solving all similar problems. And at t…
Rural women’s empowerment critical to UN Sustainable Development Agenda – Ban
15 October 2016 – Marking the International Day of Rural Women, United NationsSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that rural women are critical to the success of almost all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as they all “have gender equality and women’s empowerment at their core…
Cooking for Sustainable Development
What we eat has a direct impact not only on our health, but also on the wellbeing and prosperity of our communities, and the health of our planet. This is a lesson we learnt at a young age at our parents’ family restaurant, and one which we now try to spread from the kitchen at El Celler de Can Roca…
After the Battle for Mosul, get ready for the Islamic State to go underground
Recent on-the-ground reports from Northern Iraq, as well as statements from senior U.S. and Iraqi commanders, clearly telegraph the next phase of the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State: the battle to retake Mosul. As Iraqi forces, backed closely by U.S. advisors, prepare for t…
Why Strategists Need Philosophical Back-Up
While strategists emphasize the constant loop of question, results and evaluation, as well as anticipation of possible scenarios, history is replete with cases where strategy becomes inflexible doctrine supported by the military and political structures. It is oft noted that we fight the current war…
Syria: The Case for Interest-Based Diplomacy
The undoing of the Syria agreement with Russia caps off a rough few weeks for American diplomacy. Historically, though, the United States has enjoyed great diplomatic successes when engaging in smart diplomacy with an eye towards achieving key interests. The peaceful reunification of Germa…